Angry team to fight Prost sale

Friday 1 March 2002 00:00 BST

As Michael Schumacher set the fastest practice time for the Australian Grand Prix in an out-of-date Ferrari in Melbourne today, news that Britain is set to have another Formula One team by the next race in Malaysia has sparked a furious row between two rival bosses.

The Prost team, which was declared bankrupt by a French court in January, was bought for £1.86 million by a mystery investor, understood to be a consortium of European companies, last night.

Arrows boss Tom Walkinshaw denies he is the buyer but has confirmed that his TWR group (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) will supply technical support to get the team, which will move to an as yet unknown site in England, up and running.

However, Minardi boss Paul Stoddart, who lost out in the bid for Prost, claimed Walkinshaw was the buyer and has vowed to take the matter to the courts insisting it is against the Concorde Agreement which governs the sport.

"It's Tom Walkinshaw - maybe under another company name," claimed Stoddart, who stands to lose millions of pounds in television money and travel subsidies he would have inherited from Prost if the French team is revived.

"I have a financial interest in this but this is wrong for Formula One. I'll be taking him to court before we get to Malaysia seeking an injunction to stop this from happening. It's time the team principals united to stop stupidity like this. This is not sour grapes. I care passionately that we do not tear F1 apart."

But Walkinshaw hit back insisting all his Leafield-based company was doing was providing technical expertise.

"TWR are supporting a group of people who have bought the assets to Prost," said the Scotsman. "We will help them on the engineering side to get them up and running quickly as the season has already started.

"They want to make this happen as quickly as possible. I'd think by the race in Brazil, maybe in Malaysia in a fortnight. I'd like to know why Paul Stoddart made these comments. There were two bidders and he did not bid enough. It's as simple as that. He's just disappointed."

Argentine Gaston Mazzacane and Tomas Enge, of the Czech Republic, are the favourites to drive for the new team which will keep the Prost name for this year at least.

On the track, champion Schumacher has showed he is still the man to beat.

In first practice for the Australian Grand Prix, he set the fastest time despite being forced to use last year's car because of fears about the reliability of Ferrari's new model.

The German's time of one minute 27.276 seconds was 0.477sec quicker than his second-placed Brazilian team-mate Rubens Barrichello.

The two Williams cars were third and fourth fastest but were more than a second behind the Ferraris. Schumacher's brother Ralf was third in 1:28.821sec with his team-mate, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, a further 0.049sec back in fourth.

David Coulthard was eleventh in 1:30.312sec after his McLaren had problems with a wheel.

Jenson Button in the Renault was 15th, 3.312sec behind Ferrari's Schumacher. He was just ahead of fellow Britons Allan McNish in the Toyota and Jaguar's Eddie Irvine.